The Nitish Kumar government passed a bill in assembly today to provide 65% reservation to OBCs, Extremely Backward Classes, SCs and STs in government jobs and educational institutions. (Photo: PTI)
States such as Maharashtra and Karnataka are facing caste debates, with the former seeing protests over Maratha quota reservation, while the latter is yet to release the data
Caste and religion have been the pivots of the world’s largest democracy, India, around which electoral debates, decisions and dispensation are formed. Today, Bihar passed a bill to provide 65% reservation to Other Backward Class (OBC), Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the state, breaching the Supreme Court’s ceiling of 50%.
Kumar, who is the principal member of the Opposition front called INDIA, tabled the caste quota bill in the Bihar assembly today, sparking off the debate on caste census ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
Not just Bihar, Maharashtra is also facing the quota question for quite a few weeks now, with rural pockets witnessing protests and clampdown while some of the leaders’ houses being torched by the angry protesters.
Let’s see go in depth to know the status of caste quota debates in Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.
Bihar: Nitish Kumar’s government wants to increase the caste reservation in government jobs and educational institutions from the existing 50% to 65%. The proposed bills have provisions for 18% quota for backward classes, 25% for extremely backward classes, 20% for Scheduled Castes and 2% for Scheduled Tribes in government jobs and educational institutions. The hike in quota is as per the caste survey that was held in the state from January to May, 2023. According to the caste survey, OBCs and EBCs constitute 63% of the Bihar’s population, while SCs and STs are 19.6% and 1.68% in the state.
Maharashtra: The Marathas of the Marathwada region, which constitute 33% of the state’s population, are demanding blanket reservation. The state led by Eknath Shinde is witnessing protests, with activist Manoj Jarange-Patil giving a two-month ultimatum to the government to come up with the solution. The all-party meeting held recently saw all stakeholders agreeing to give reservation to Marathas by providing them Kunbi caste certificates. But leaders within Mahayuti like Chaggan Bhujbal has reportedly shown concerns regarding blanket reservation for Marathas under the OBC status. He has in fact asked the OBC community at a rally to “fight” for their rights. Marathas are a major deciding factor in state and national politics. While most of them are land holding farmers, it is those who face agricultural distress that are seeking reservation. The Bombay High Court had reduced the quota from 16% to 13% in jobs and 12% in education. It was then challenged in the Supreme Court. The top court had in May 2021 struck down the law brought by the state government as it was violating the 50% reservation ceiling in the state. It is the 50% cap that is a challenge for the government to provide reservation to Marathas.
Karnataka: The Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes will submit its report on caste census, which was conducted in 2015, to the present Siddaramaiah government. If that is submitted, Karnataka will be the second state after Bihar to have a caste census, an idea endorsed by the Congress ahead of the 2024 elections. The Veerashaiva, Lingayats and Vokkaligas (land-owning and politically powerful communities) insist that the caste data not be published, while the backward communities want it to see the light of the day. In 2018, certain findings of the report were leaked, according to which, Vokkaligas and Lingayats were much less in number compared to SCs, which constitute 19.5% of the state population. Muslims formed the second largest group after the SCs, comprising 16% state’s population while Lingayats and Vokkaligas were only 14% and 11%. Among the OBCs, Kurba accounts for 7% of the population. Overall, OBCs comprise 20% of the state population. Former CM Basavaraj Bommai had said his party is not against the caste census, but will wait for the report to be made public.
Kerala: The Left government is facing pressure to release caste-based data of its population. It is learnt that some sections of the upper caste are against conducting the survey. The NSS has said “caste-based reservation is an unhealthy system that poses a threat to the nation’s unity”. Political outfits such as Jamaat-e-Islami’s Welfare Party, Kerala Cheramar Christian Sangham have demanded caste census after the Bihar government’s move. At present, there are 84 communities in OBC list of Kerala, and Hindi Ezhava and Muslims have the highest reservation.
Telangana: The KCR government in South has 50% reservation for OBCs, SCs and STs, but in 2017, it had passed a bill hiking reservation of Muslims from 4% to 12% and from 6% to 10% for STs.
Tamil Nadu: The state has 69% reservation, including 18% for SCs, 1% for STs, 20% for Most Backward Castes (MBC) and 30% for OBCs. The OBC quota includes reservations for minority communities, including a 3.5% reservation for Muslims.